Impact of autocatalytic chemical reaction in an Ostwald-de-Waele nanofluid flow past a rotating disk with heterogeneous catalysis

Abstract

Abstract The nanofluids owing to their alluring attributes like enhanced thermal conductivity and better heat transfer characteristics have a vast variety of applications ranging from space technology to nuclear reactors etc. The present study highlights the Ostwald-de-Waele nanofluid flow past a rotating disk of variable thickness in a porous medium with a melting heat transfer phenomenon. The surface catalyzed reaction is added to the homogeneous-heterogeneous reaction that triggers the rate of the chemical reaction. The added feature of the variable thermal conductivity and the viscosity instead of their constant values also boosts the novelty of the undertaken problem. The modeled problem is erected in the form of a system of partial differential equations. Engaging similarity transformation, the set of ordinary differential equations are obtained. The coupled equations are numerically solved by using the bvp4c built-in MATLAB function. The drag coefficient and Nusselt number are plotted for arising parameters. The results revealed that increasing surface catalyzed parameter causes a decline in thermal profile more efficiently. Further, the power-law index is more influential than the variable thickness disk index. The numerical results show that variations in dimensionless thickness coefficient do not make any effect. However, increasing power-law index causing an upsurge in radial, axial, tangential, velocities, and thermal profile.